The program offers code completion, database management (SQL Server, SQL CE, MySQL), and can download and set up a host of free and open source tools: WordPress, DotNetNuke, Drupal, SugarCRM, phpBB, Tiki Wiki, Joomla! and many more.

Bundled iPhone, Windows Phone and iPad simulators help to ensure your sites work on mobile devices. There are tools to help you optimise and tune sites for the best possible performance, and FTP and web deployment options will get your work online.

WebMatrix 3 improves the situation further with good Windows Azure integration; you can sign in with your Microsoft account, then create and host 10 sites for free.

There's now source control, too, courtesy of Git. And while this can normally be a difficult task (for beginners, at least), WebMatrix provides a straightforward front end for the usual command line complexities.

Enhanced remote editing further simplifies the development process. No need to work from a local source, just edit the remote files and your changes are automatically pushed to the site.

And Microsoft says WebMatrix includes "hundreds" of further improvements, "including an extension for PHP validation and Typescript support."

Verdict:

An interesting web development tool which comes crammed with time-saving features

There's a vast amount to learn, of course, and that's even before you start building your game. But there's plenty of documentation, tutorials, demos and sample projects to point you in the right direction.

The package is now entirely free, too - no annoying limitations, nag screens or anything else. Epic now only requires that you pay a 5% royalty after the first $3,000 of revenue per product per quarter. And even then, you "pay no royalty for film projects, contracting and consulting projects such as architecture, simulation and visualization."

8.48 brings:
- Optimized grass rendering and procedural foliage system preview
- Plugins available in Marketplace
- Improved accuracy for motion blur
- New Tone Mapper
- Support for all the latest VR hardware including Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Steam VR and HTC Vive, Leap Motion, and Sony's Project Morpheus for PlayStation 4
- "Scrubbable" network replays with rewind support and live time scrubbing
- Visualize the memory footprint of game assets in an interactive tree map UI